SuburbanDaddy

Thing 1 had surgery six days ago. He was born with a hemangioma on his shoulder. It started as a little red dot, and eventually grew to several inches in diameter. It used to look like he was wearing a shoulder pad on one side, but it became flatter over time.

We’ve always known he would eventually have surgery to remove it. The doctors suggested we wait until just before school age, when he’s still young enough not to remember it, but old enough to allow the lesion to recede somewhat on its own. After school age, he might become self conscience about it. Up until now, it bothered us more than him.

The surgery was at Children’s National Medical Center, at an outpatient location. I’m sure to the doctors this was considered a “routine” procedure [Read more →]

We all have episodes from our past that we may not be proud of. Many are the exact behaviors we tell our kids not to do. Don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t have sex, don’t pierce, don’t get a tattoo.

Luckily for us parents, MySpace, YouTube, and digital cameras weren’t around when we young, so maybe there is no publicly available evidence. But, we still need to decide what, when, and how much to tell our kids about our checkered past.

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When you want something so badly, there is no length you wouldn’t go, no road you wouldn’t travel, to get it. Sometimes, the end really does justify any means.

Such is the case with potty training. Thing 2 has been reasonably good with #1. Pooping, however, has been a much different story. When wearing diapers, he liked to go to his spot in the playroom and spend some “quiet time” with his castle, if you know what I mean.

To ease the transition, we’ve tried to make going on the potty as familiar to his routine as possible. So, I find myself in scenes like this. At the time, it didn’t seem like an odd thing to do. Looking at the picture now, I see it needs some bit of explanation.

Thanks to dad-to-be James, I just learned about a new site called BabySpot for sharing photos and videos of your baby.

Parents from all over the world congregate here to share their child’s baby pictures, offer parenting tips & tricks through parenting blogs, and to meet new people and share family stories on their family blog.

And the best part is it was started by dads. Imagine that, fathers excited, interested, and involved with their babies!

Given the ruckus we had here this week, the choice for this week’s poll seemed obvious. Let’s put it to a vote!

And a reminder, if you have an idea for a future parenting poll, please leave a comment.

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Tonight I had the fun of bouncing between bathrooms as Thing 1 and Thing 2 both were attempting to go #2 on the potty. I was reminded of the banjo scene from the movie Deliverance, as I traveled back and forth to calls of “Daaaaddddy!”.

They alway decide they need to go potty after we put them to bed. Then, we have to go all the way back downstairs for the sticker chart ceremony. Then it’s: “I’m thirsty”. I know it’s a ploy to stay up later. But what are you going to do?

My post about CafeMom discriminating against dads sparked quite a reaction from many CafeMom elitists members. I was called “CafeMom Spy” and “idiot”. Yikes.

I got some support from some of my dad peeps - Bill and Jason. And, lo and behold, I got supportive comments from some moms, too. Thank you Vicky and Jenny. I’m glad I’m not alone on this one.

I still maintain that CafeMom’s policy is ridiculous. [Read more →]

CafeMom bills itself as “the largest social-networking/community site for moms AND the leading women’s/parenting site on the internet”. Their other claim to fame is that Andrew Shue, of Melrose Place fame, is a co-founder.

SuburbanDaddy is a modern kind of guy, secure enough in his own parenting abilities and generally in touch with his mommy side. Most of my readers are moms, and I regularly follow and comment on mom blogs, and on other parenting community sites. I was welcomed, along with many other dad bloggers, into the BlogHer advertising network, “the community for women who blog”.

So I thought nothing of it when I registered for an account at CafeMom. Then, shortly after registering, I received this email:

Your CafeMom account has been canceled because the site is ONLY for moms and moms-to-be. We recommend a site like www.parentsconnect.com (no relation).

We appreciate your cooperation.

*The CafeMom Admin Team

How ridiculous is this? With the limited amount of information given at registration, I can only assume they determined I wasn’t a mom because I used suburbandaddy as a username.  Please.  I could easily have used a different username with mommy in it, and then they would have accepted me.  What’s the point?  Isn’t this 2008?

I know of some 5 year olds who drink coffee. I have seen parents give sips of coffee to kids as young as 3.

I have never let my kids try coffee or soda. It’s not that I’m a health nut. We go to McDonalds, eat frozen pizza and candy. But coffee just seems a bit extreme.

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To those readers who are new parents, here is something you may want to see to know what to expect in a few years. Thing 1’s power struggles have been fodder for this site before. But this time, I actually caught one on tape.

This one was actually pretty tame by his prior standards. It started one weekend afternoon. He gave up taking naps on weekends a long time ago, even though he takes one every day at preschool.

The sequence of events is as follows.

Thing 1 says he needs a tissue. But he goes into his “I’m too weak and it’s too hard to move” routine, choosing to lay on the stairs instead. After making the long trek up the stairs, he returns to say there are no tissues. More accurately, there are no tissues because he put them all in the trash. The whole box.

I send him to his room. Crying ensues. After being in his room for a few minutes, he starts to bang the door. I go up to check. He denies doing it.

More of the same. More crying. Just another day with a four year old.

I can’t wait to show him this video in about 25 years, when he has a new baby, so he’ll know what to expect.